Pfizer’s proposed $120 billion takeover of British pharmaceutical rival AstraZeneca is now dead for at least several months, as the two companies are now pursuing other interests. Under U.K. takeover law, Pfizer and AstraZeneca had six months from Pfizer’s original offer to reach a deal. That deadline came and went on Monday.

That’s not to say that a deal won’t happen — U.K. law stipulates that Pfizer may make another bid in six months. However, stalling at this stage does not bode well for a potential deal, and Pfizer chairman and CEO Ian Read told The Wall Street Journal that the company is now looking in other directions.

“We are now moving on. We have no idea whether we'd be interested in AstraZeneca at any point in the future,” Read said.

Meanwhile, in a written statement, AstraZeneca chairman Leif Johansson said that the company would focus internally on its own product line, saying in a statement, “We welcome the opportunity to continue building on the momentum we have already demonstrated as an independent company.”

At times, AstraZeneca did not seem particularly on board with Pfizer’s plans. When in January Pfizer proposed a price of $76.62 per AstraZeneca share plus a premium of 30 percent on that day’s closing stock price, a total of $98.68 billion, AstraZeneca responded that the price “very significantly undervalued AstraZeneca and its prospects.”

The move stalls a strong start to M&A transactions in 2014, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have agreed to merge elements of each company’s consumer drug business in a $20 billion deal, putting forth a stronger, unified front. In addition, Bayer acquired Merck’s consumer care business for $14.2 billion, taking control of well-known brands such as Claritin, Coppertone, Afrin and Dr. Scholl’s.